Links & notes for this month

• • adaptive path » death to lorem ipsum & other adventures in content
    "...words are a critically important driver in the success of the end user experience, and therefore a writer is a critically important player in the beginning. Period." Spot on stuff here - makes me feel guilty for being lax on copy on some recent work.
    (tags: design copywriting copy usability interaction interface writing)
• • The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete
    Moving away from modelling and into vast-scale collection; back to the ways of natural philosophy. Only this time: we really can collect enough *stuff*.
    (tags: biology science data analysis collection modelling scale genetics)
  • YouTube - Spore Creature Creator Video
    Thayer uploaded her creature directly to Youtube from Spore Creature Creator. *That*'s the kind of integration I'm talking about. How hard can it be?
    (tags: youtube spore integration services webofdata)
  • celemony_ :: Direct Note Access
    This isn't helping my suspicions that Melodyne is some kind of dark magic. Incredible.
    (tags: melodyne music audio software remarkable crazy magic)
  • ATOzTOA: Linux Commands I Hardly Knew
    These are useful.
    (tags: linux shell bash cli tips commands help)
  • Crispy Gamer - Column: Print Screen: "Dungeons & Desktops" and Writing Gaming History
    "it's a shame that a book as significant and thorough as [this] isn't better than it is, a victim of poor editing, poor organization, and a frustrating inconsistency, as the book veers from true history to trite encyclopedia..."
    (tags: games rpgs criticism writing computer)
  • remain calm » ds music apps
    "the nintendo ds is an excellent platform for homebrew audio software - here’s an (incomplete) list of some of the excellent sound toys that are available for the platform." Awesome. More listed in the comments, too.
    (tags: ds homebrew music sequencing synthesis)
• • Delighting with Data » tomtaylor.co.uk
    "sometimes we geeks forget about all the delightful and beautiful things we can build. The things that aren’t necessarily useful or purposeful, but pointless, silly and wonderful." Tom on fire with lots of lovely examples.
    (tags: data visualisation interaction hardware sensor input output towerbridge arduino spimes talking)
• • Orisinal.com - Sunny Day Sky
    More Ferry Halim, and it's a wonderful little one-button game. Also, the music is as good as ever, except it's cheery rather than heartbreaking, which helps.
    (tags: ferryhalim flash game onebutton orsinal play)
  • BLDGBLOG: For whom the bell tolls
    "The city goes dark. The tolling gets louder. In all the region's cemeteries, the soil starts to quake." Oh god yes. Lovely article about earthquake dampers and giant clocks.
    (tags: architecture fantasy writing bldgblog funny imaginative)
  • Cooking With Booze: The Blog — In Vino, Civitas
    "I believe there’s a much larger story about how our whole civilisation is based to some extent on our desire for booze - one that goes back even further than human civilisation itself." James on fine form at Interesting.
    (tags: drink civilization mankind growth booze culture history society interesting08)
• • Favourite Monkey Crisps | A Better Course
    "...making that context a part of your marketing is going to be much more relevant to customers than being dismissive of your competitors could ever be." Alex on marketing and copywriting, again. Good stuff (and: good snacks!)
    (tags: copywriting marketing branding advertising snacks snackfood crisps)
  • Pizza Party - Command Line Pizza ordering program
    "Pizza Party is a free text based software package for ordering pizza, or for throwing pizza parties." This is awesome.
    (tags: awesome pureawesome pizza cli shell commandline dominos)
  • Manual Page - pizza_party(1)
    Man page for pizza_party: "pizza_party -pmx 2 medium regular \ Orders 2 medium regular crust pizzas with pepperoni, mushrooms, and extra-cheese." This is just pure awesome.
    (tags: cli food unix pizza awesome pureawesome manpage)
  • » Jumpen! (etc.) - little things
    More on Jumpstyle - although I'm really digging the progression into Shuffle highlighted here. I love this stuff. Also, I'm a sucker for choreography.
    (tags: dancing jumpstyle shuffle choreography harddance club youtube belgium)
• • Ambrosia Software Web Board > Cave Story
    There's a link at the end of this thread to a patched OSX version of Cave Story. Excellent!
    (tags: cavestory platform games play homebrew lovely)
  • Indie platformer extravaganza! | MetaFilter
    "Do you enjoy classic 2D platformers? Then boy, are you in luck!" Massive MeFi post collecting a whole bunch of indie platform games.
    (tags: independent games platform metafilter)
  • Garmin Edge 305 Cycle GPS Computer
    GPS for cycling with time-attack and training modes; lets you race against yourself (or virtual competitors) over time, and track progress on the PC-based training application.
    (tags: playful play exercise games gps location cycling training sportsillustrated)
  • Our Writing Is Not Of Your World | Storytellersunplugged
    "What that means, though, is that when you’re looking at game writing in that way, you’re trying to fix a busted carburetor with an oil gauge and a cheese grater." Some sensible analysis; such a shame we need to write things like this.
    (tags: games writing narrative storytelling play movies disconnect interactivity)
  • The Lego Secret Vault: Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History
    "...visiting [Lego's] secret vault guarding almost every Lego set ever manufactured—touched me in a way I didn't expect. This wasn't amazement or simple awe... these were tickets to ride a time portal to emotions and simpler days long forgotten."
    (tags: awesome article play toys lego blog archive historiography)
• • The Naming of Stuff - Atlus.com
    Lovely article on the localisation work for Etrian Odyssey on the DS. Tight memory restrictions leads to translators having to be smart; Atlus' team appear to be that.
    (tags: etrianodyssey nintendo ds atlus rpg translation localisation)
  • Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable
    "A caution to people buying these: if you do not follow the "directional markings" on the cables, your music will play backwards. Please check that before mentioning it in your reviews." And so forth. Very funny reviews for a somewhat overpriced product.
    (tags: denon cable satire amazon ugc reviews crowdsourcing funny humour)
  • random($foo): Google Spreadsheet, My Asset Allocation, Investing 101
    "A couple years ago, it occurred to me that learning some basic finance/investing (which sadly, isn't really taught at all anywhere in the school system) might not be a bad idea." Leonard Lin shares his investment spreadsheet.
    (tags: finance spreadsheet investing stock shares public)
  • PS3 pricing costs Sony USD 3bn News // None /// Eurogamer
    "[Sony]... lost USD 2.16 billion on PS3 in 2007, and a further USD 1.16 billion this year... the company has warned investors that ... 'the large-scale investment...may not be fully recovered'" This isn't sustainable, guys.
    (tags: games economics finance industry profit loss lossleader investment ps3 sony)
• • Halolz: Alignment
    "WE MAKE GOOD TEAM". Lovely.
    (tags: tf2 humour alignment funny dand)
• • Interview with Alan Taylor, Creator of Boston Globe's The Big Picture - Waxy.org
    Some good stuff and choice quotes about the background to the Big Picture, a truly wonderful blog of the stories hidden inside wire photojournalism.
    (tags: bigpicture photography photojournalism bostonglobe programming journalism web blog)
  • StumbleVideo - TF2 Karaoke: My Heart Will Go On on Vimeo
    Awesome. Server set up to play karaoke; players mix appalling singing with a bit of the old ultraviolence. I miss PC gamers.
    (tags: karaoke music play games tf2 celinedion humour groups fun)
  • DOFI-BLOG どふぃぶろぐ Cat on a Dolphin
    Wonderful, wonderful, one-button game that looks like those cave-surfing games but isn't. Gorgeous.
    (tags: play games flash simple abstract silly surreal onebutton nlgd2008playlist japanese)
  • Skills Shortage Article // None /// Eurogamer
    "It's time for direct action against bad game-related degrees." Yes, yes, yes. A thoughtful, sensible article... and one that applies to many other fields, too. Such a waste.
    (tags: education uk games degree university polytechnic skills gamesindustry)
  • Michael S. Rosenwald - Putting Prices Into Focus - washingtonpost.com
    A good article, until the last sentence which made me VERY ANGRY.
    (tags: finance economics psychology iphone purchasing behaviour)
  • IGDA - Articles - Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work: 6 Lessons
    "There's a bottom-line reason most industries gave up crunch mode over 75 years ago: It's the single most expensive way there is to get the work done." Yes, yes, yes; a great article, with lots of good references.
    (tags: overtime crunch productivity software development programming games exploitation labour efficiency)
  • Ice-T vs Soulja Boy - kanYe West : Blog
    " He came from the hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song. He had all of America rapping this summer. If that ain't Hip Hop then what is?" 21st Century beefs, with Kanye weighing in. Great.
    (tags: hiphop beef souljaboy kanyewest icet media)
  • One Of The Greatest Quotes Ever… | iain tait | crackunit.com
    "Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." Iain Tait with some DFW. Sharp stuff.
    (tags: davidfosterwallace quotation television media aesthetics vulgarity refinement culture stereotyping broadstrokes)
• • I Believe in Advertising | Advertising Blog & Community » EA Games: Goodbye, Proud Mother, Back Home
    Hey kids: this is the Uncanny Valley. It won't sell your games. The last ad in particular is horrific.
    (tags: ea games uncannyvalley terrifying advertising horrible medalofhonor scarredforlife)
  • Twenty Sided » Blog Archive » My Comment on a Comment on Your Comments
    "The comments on this site stand in stark contrast to the childishness and idiocy that flourishes elsewhere on the net. I know it, and I know I’m fortunate in this regard." A nice thank-you note from a really rather good writer and gamesblog.
    (tags: writing comments blogging internet)
  • Yummy Yummy Yummy I've got Tags in my Tummy
    "Eats your del.icio.us tags and spits out a tasty timeline."
    (tags: delicious api mashup webapp visualisation timeline)
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Abridged Script | The Editing Room
    "SHIA LABEOUF: Pick up MAP. Use MAP on HARRISON FORD. Walk To TOMB."
    (tags: gamelike satire humour funny indianajones script abridged)
  • Simple Truths - Parkour on Vimeo
    "I feel sometimes it is as important for us to see our mistakes as it is for us to see ourselves at our best, it gives us direction and allows us to progress looking backward as well as forward. So these are my simple truths." Lovely UK parkour video.
    (tags: uk parkour mistakes play urban cities movement)
  • Swinxs, the toy that's active and fun - Swinxs the first computer to use outside
    An outdoor games console, with lots of fun locative play elements. And it's *real*.
    (tags: swinxs play outdoors games technology everyware ubicomp fun nlgd)
  • Project: IceCube
    One-button game that won the NLGD gamesdev rally. Looks interesting, and Michiel was a lovely chap.
    (tags: nlgd2008toplay icecube onebutton game flash casual play)
  • Takara Tomy's RPG Piggy Bank: level up by saving up - Engadget
    You save money; you level up in the electronic game that's attached to the piggybank...
    (tags: electronics consumer games play levelling experience saving)